Innovation
Vendors Continue to Move Products, Services to the Cloud: Some Examples
Last year, most (if not all) financial technology providers either completed or started major projects that involved moving their products and services to the cloud. WatersTechnology looks at 15 of the more interesting cloud-migration initiatives from…
FactSet, Snowflake Take Aim at Financial Data Mapping Challenges
FactSet’s mapping service, Concordance, can be used on its own or with Snowflake’s cloud, enabling users to apply the offering to other datasets in Snowflake’s ecosystem.
Waters Wrap: Why Banks Should Start Experimenting with Quantum Today (And ESG’s Next Wave)
If banks want to future-proof against quantum computing disruption, Anthony says they need to start experimenting now. But there’s another reason to start down this path: as Goldman Sach’s William Zeng explains, there’s a lot of funding that’s available…
Cohesion on ESG Standards Still Elusive, Despite Biden Win
While many expect the president-elect to take a bullish stance on environmental issues, it's unclear what a new dispensation can do for the dilemmas around ESG standards.
Goldman Sachs, IBM Lay Out Quantum Project for Derivatives Pricing
The two firms spent the better part of 2020 developing a detailed analysis of the quantum computing resources needed to achieve quantum advantage in derivatives pricing. Execs from IBM and Goldman explain why this benchmark is important for future…
Quants Find New Ways to Identify Inventive Companies
Buy-side firms are using patent and other types of data to identify trailblazer companies from phonies.
Waters Wrap: App Interop in 2020 (And Tony’s Fave Stories From Last Year)
Anthony takes a look at some of the major projects that involved application interoperability from last year. The list includes feats by Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Barclays, ICE, State Street, Refinitiv, and FactSet.
How Will Covid Lessons Reshape Financial Tech in 2021?
As 2020 comes to a close, Anthony looks at how firms have adjusted their short- and long-term plans in the face of the coronavirus, focusing on office space, innovation, alt data, and mental health.
Machine Learning in the Capital Markets 2020: ML Spreads During Pandemic
WatersTechnology looks at how 10 different firms are embedding machine learning algorithms into their platforms and tools.
Asia at the Forefront of Innovation—A Look at Tech Projects in the Region
WatersTechnology looks at some of the major projects coming out of Asia that are leading the way for firms around the globe.
Arabesque AI to Launch New Prediction Engine Using Machine Learning
The firm is working with different machine-learning methods for portfolio construction, and expects its AI system to go live early next year.
Waters Wrap: SS&C Advent & Refinitiv Refine Cloud Plans (And Some Fixed Income Bits)
Anthony looks at how two major tech companies in the capital markets space are evolving their cloud strategies and what they might mean for the industry at large.
Refinitiv Says Goodbye TREP, Hello RTDS; Bolsters Cloud Support
As the “vast majority” of customers are shifting to the cloud, Refinitiv is looking to broaden its own cloud capabilities to help customers with their transitions.
Wavelength Podcast Ep. 223: IBM’s Likhit Wagle on Cloud Adoption
IBM’s general manager of global banking joins to talk about challenges and opportunities surrounding public cloud adoption and containerization.
SS&C Advent Looks to the Cloud for Future Tech Deployments
After the rollout of its Genesis platform, SS&C Advent is now thinking about how it can transition platforms like Geneva, Moxy, and APX to the cloud, though it’s a long-term project.
ICE ‘Bonds’ Acquisitions into Fixed-Income Powerhouse
In this profile of the Intercontinental Exchange, Lynn Martin explains how the company’s ICE Data Services unit is creating a unified offering with fixed income data at its core, after a series of acquisitions that began with its purchase of IDC in 2015.
Machine Learning will Create New Sales Bots on Trading Desks
Technologists are working to automate indications of interest from trading desks, according to UBS’s head of machine learning.
Case Studies: Two Hedge Funds Incorporate Behavioral Analytics to Optimize Performance
Regardless of fund type, portfolio managers can analyze their trade data and behavior to make improvements, according to Essentia Analytics’ CEO.
Waters Wrap: Best-of-Breed or One-Stop-Shop, That is the Question (And NLG Thoughts)
RBC is building a new custody platform using a variety of vendors, and it shows how the interoperability movement is progressing. But Anthony wonders how interop will continue to evolve at a time of great consolidation.
RBC Taps Salesforce and Others for Broker, Wealth Custody Platform
The full platform, leveraging an open API architecture and multiple third-party providers, will enter beta testing in early 2021.
Wavelength Podcast Ep. 222: Grasshopper’s John Lin on Using Tech for Good
Lin, the founder of a Singaporean HFT firm, joins to talk about why banks struggle with innovation, and how he wants to use tech for altruistic purposes.
Point Break: How Vendors Push Their Products to the Limit
Vendors don’t release new products or updates without putting their software through rigorous testing. What does that testing involve, and what different approaches do companies employ? Max Bowie finds out.
At the ‘Fringes of Realism’: Agent-Based Models Take Hold Among Quants
Agent-based modeling has taken root seemingly everywhere throughout the last decade, from theoretical physics, to military operations, to public health, to ride-sharing apps like Uber, and to a much lesser extent, finance. However, a year such as 2020…
Startup Hedge Fund Turns to Quantamental Analysis for ESG Products
Boston-based Changebridge Capital is using a hybrid approach to find investment opportunities in misunderstood small- and mid-cap companies.